Reconciliation means listening.
From our Diocesan Stewardship committee:
“The annual Orange Shirt Day on September 30th is an opportunity to initiate meaningful discussion about the effects of Residential Schools and the legacy they have left behind. The symbolism of the orange shirt evolved from the story of former student Phyllis Webstad when as a six-year-old, her shiny new orange shirt, bought by her grandmother, was taken from on her first day at the residential school at Williams Lake, BC.
From 1831 to 1996, over 130 federally funded, church-run residential schools were attended by more than 150,000 Indigenous children. The goal, as Canada’s first prime minister, John A. Macdonald, so succinctly put it, was to “take the Indian out of the child,” or forced assimilation. It was a cultural genocide that has reverberated through generations of Indigenous Peoples through intergenerational trauma.
As we commemorate the residential school experience, we can witness and honour the healing journey of the survivors and their families, and through our understanding commit ourselves to the ongoing process of reconciliation.
On September 30th, we call upon humanity to listen with open ears to the stories of survivors and their families, and to remember those that didn’t make it.”
